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BUSINESS ADAPTATION // MENTOR: ANDREW BOARDMAN @ MANOVERBOARD

Organizational pitch

Student final report

REDUCE SPEAKING ANXIETY ONLINE // MENTOR: SUSAN KUZ
Co-create an organization and skills development program to help young adults who experience social anxiety or are uncomfortable speaking and presenting online. This program will help them overcome their fears and move through personal challenges in a safe and supportive online space while learning necessary skills to thrive in our new socially distanced world. Elements of the project might include: 

  1. Business framework - non-profit, social-enterprise, for profit and how would this look.
  2. General product format and options: intro webinar, basic program cohort, advanced courses, community for members, project work for personal growth, accountability and support, personal growth dashboard, podcast?, 
  3. Marketing partnerships - post-secondary, higher-education, job/career, business, international, etc. 
  4. Marketing ideas - we need to come up with a name. Social Group won't cut it. 


Organizational pitch


Student response

business Adaptation // Mentor: Erin Keating @ Ruby west restaurant
Partner: Ruby West 

The Ruby West is a new small restaurant focused on being a positive addition to the Wolseley community and to making a positive difference in the greater world. With restaurants already running at the tightest of margins (especially new ones), and having a traditional focus of socializing in tight spaces, the pandemic has made the future success of this business questionable. How can the business plan be transformed so that the space can provide the greatest benefit to society and the environment while still achieving financial sustainability? 
​

Organizational pitch


Student final report

Land + space design // Mentor: Sue Mair
Partner: Rural Dharma Centre

This is a "design project" which offers students the opportunity to create ideas the maximize current spaces at a rural co-housing facility to enhance livability that supports good physical, mental, and existential health. The project will begin with a field survey of existing spaces (the house, the main building, and kutis), followed by the design of communal spaces to maximize function and social cohesion under pandemic conditions: how can we create indoor-outdoor meeting spaces where social distancing could be maintained (ie. a "contemplative garden" with space for benches and outdoor activities such as yoga). 

As part of the project, we will ask students to consider the use of the land as well as energy and waste systems. 
​

Organizational pitch

Student response


Elements might include: 

Cooking outdoors using low-energy organic inputs, including: 
  • Rocket stoves: creating heat from minimal fuel inputs
  • Biochar kiln stoves: using the process heat from biochar production to cook with
  • Solar ovens and solar dehydrators

Animal Rearing: Research and design low cost methods of using chickens and other small animals, such as goats or sheep, to enhance the permaculture design.  Projects may include designing and building movable chicken coops for lawn and brush control (under hydro lines), creating a seasonal plan that includes costs, tasks (chores) and and hazards (such as working under the hydro lines). 

Permaculture: ​Identify, design and build garden beds and other nesting systems, such as Hugelkultur,  that can enhance the perennial and annual food production infrastructure of the property. This includes researching, planning hands-on work sessions, and finally engaging local Manitoban experts in developing a multi-year plan for the community to produce a good portion of their vegetable and fruit needs for the year. ​

Trail building: is the best way to create trails on a rural property? This would likely need to include a review the elevation of the land/ forest including "low spots" that might require a built up path, as well as research the best ways to do that. Ideally the trails would serve as walking paths in the summer and cross country skiing/snowshoeing in the winter. Also included in this project would be the creation of a direct path to access the land under a set of hydro lines, which maybe developed in the future for animals or gardening.  

Energy system design: 
​Investigate the energy needs (heating, cooling, cooking, washing, lighting, etc.) of a small contemplative community living on 60 rural acres. Potential inputs could be solar-electric, passive-solar, geothermal, wood-burning, or the processing of organic waste (food/plant/excrement). The focus would be on systems that could be built and maintained economically and efficiently independent of the traditional power grid.
MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT // FIREWEED FOOD CO-OP
Partner: Fireweed Food Co-op

​This role would entail helping our Food Hub Coordinator consider the best ways of interacting with co-op membership and improving the market base. The food hub aggregates and distributes local, sustainably-produced food to its members, and needs to find new ways of working safely after COVID-19. 
​

Organizational Pitch

Student response

ev CHARGING FEASIBILITY STUDY // CMU
Investigate the quantity, type, and cost for the potential installation and maintenance of electric vehicle charging stations at Canadian Mennonite University. Are there organizational partners who might be helpful in evaluating these decisions? Should CMU purchase a new or used EV?  

PREVIOUS COURSES

1. Politics, Society, & the Mass Media
2. Social Entrepreneurship

3. ​Citizenship, Land, Economy
4. Social Innovation Lab
5. Social Welfare ​
6. Democracy & Dissent

1. Politics, Society,
​& the Mass Media

SLIDES
SYLLABUS
Additional slides: Ideology in media

​ASSIGNMENTS 
Presentation sign-up sheet
Learning statement entries
Presentation grading form
Annotated Bibliography instructions
TEXTS
Communication and New Media, by Harrison et al. 


// SYMBOLS & IDEOLOGY
Rhetorical Criticism as the Asking of Questions, by Sonja Foss 
Down with Ideology: Zizek Video
Performing Civic Identity (Iwo Jima), by Hariman and Lucaites 


// MEDIA ECOLOGY (definition)
Manufacturing Consent, by Herman & Chomsky 
The Medium is the Message, by Marshall McLuhan
Orality & Literacy, by Walter Ong
Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman

// CRITICAL STUDIES 
The Culture Industry, by Horkheimer & Adorno

// THE INTERNET + DEMOCRACY
The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr (summary)
Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?, by Jean Twenge (Atlantic)
The Shattered Mirror, by the Public Policy Forum (website)
Post-Truth, by Evan Davis (video)
Trick Mirror, by Jia Tolentino (podcast interview)
Digital Democracy/Tyranny of Cyberspace, by Slavoj Zizek (video)

​
ADDITIONAL READING
The App Generation, by Howard & Davis

4. Social Welfare

SYLLABUS
GRADING
SLIDES
​Social Welfare
Child Welfare and EI
First Nations and CFS

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
The Precariat, by Guy Standing
A World With No BS Jobs, by David Graeber
The Disappearing Company Job, CBC​

ASSIGNMENTS
Annotated Bibliography

5. Social Innovation Lab

SLIDES

2. Social Entrepreneruship

SYLLABUS
SLIDES
Theory + Practice
Management for SE
​

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything
Startup Structures: MaRS Impact Report
The Quiet Radicalism of Building a Lifestyle Business

MAJOR ASSIGNMENT 
​Pathway descriptions (select your pathway)

3. Citizenship, Land, Economy

SYLLABUS
Grading

SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS
DEFINITIONS + OBJECTIVES
What is the Steady State Economy? by James MJ
What is Degrowth? by Frederico Demaria et al

PRIMARY TEXTS
Sacred Economics, by Charles Eisenstein
Small Is Beautiful, by EF Schumacher
The Land Ethic, by Aldo Leopold
Towards a Society of Frugal Abundance pt 1, by Serge Latouche 
Towards a Society of Frugal Abundance pt 2, by Serge Latouche 

SEPARATION
A History of Alienation, by Martin Jay
Why Loneliness is Toxic, by Wendy Leung
In extremis, by Nabeelah Jaffer
Only the Lonely, by Cody Deslistraty

ENERGY
Revisiting the Limits to Growth, by Hall & Day
The Physics of Energy and the Economy, by Gail Tverberg

TECHNOLOGY
A Critique of Techno-Optimism, by Samuel Alexander
Twenty Questions: Technology and Simple Living, by Mark Burch 

JOBS
The Precariat, by Guy Standing
A World With No BS Jobs, by David Graeber
The Disappearing Company Job, CBC
Educating for Simple Living, by Mark Burch

COSMIC CONSIDERATIONS
The Church of Economism..., Richard Norgaard
​Enlivenment, by Andreas Weber
A New Story for a New Economy, by David Korten

6. Democracy & Dissent

syllabus
slides
Open book test on chapters 1-3.
​(the test will be taken in class)
This site is not formally associated with any organization and it has no political affiliation. 

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